Who we are and ethos

The Wildlife Survey Unit is an ecological consultancy, formed in 2009 we have been operating for fifteen years and have a reputation for providing high quality survey, reporting and advice. 

All staff and subcontractors who work for the company are members of CIEEM and abide by it’s code of professional conduct. This ensures clients can be confident that the ecological surveys and reporting that they commission meet the highest standards in the industry.
 
We are ground breaking in terms of our carbon balancing of the daily activities of the ecological consultancy, so that our surveys and activities do not negatively affect the planet’s carbon budget. We are the only ecology company in Scotand using electric vehicles for our day to day survey work. The World Land Trust provides an independent audit of our carbon balancing, and donations to this organisation ensure biodiversity gain as well as carbon balancing for the remaining emissions we produce.
 
We have an environmental policy that ensures we reduce our ecological footprint to the absolute minimum possible.
 
The Company Director, Peter Stronach, is a terrestrial and marine ecologist with a specialism in ornithology. He is heavily involved in biological recording within the Highlands, being the former bird recorder for the Highland recording area and active with the Rare Invertebrates in the Cairngorms (RICS) project. He created a website for ornithology in the Highlands (www.highlandbirds.scot), promoting it's study in the region and increasing interest within the population. He has discovered two new bird species for the Western Palearctic (Blue Grosbeak and Mourning Warbler), and been involved in the finding of a new breeding species for the Western Palearctic (Golden Nightjar), and found new breeding species for the Highlands. 
 
Our fieldwork throughout the Highlands is in an area with very few biological records, our bat survey work has pushed north the known breeding range of Daubenton’s and Brown Long-eared bat to the north coast of Sutherland. 
 
All reports produced for planning, as well as recommending ways of ensuring legal compliance through the development process also include ways of increasing biodiversity net gain. This ensures the clients have a simple, easy to understand measures to increase biodiversity.

What we do

We provide the following services to our clients:

  • Baseline ecological survey for protected species and habitats
  • Ecological survey reports
  • Ecological Impact Assessment (EcIA's)
  • European Protected Species Licensing 
  • Ecological Clerk of Works (ECOW)
  • GIS and AutoCAD
  • Management Plans
  • Mitigation and enhancement

The developments we have previously worked on have included onshore and offshore windfarms, road schemes, pipelines, hydro-electric schemes, military developments, rail schemes and housing developments.